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Show I ) 8 P''3 g TT i V4 $-lrA7AvAA I S Kf Ik M -eWives "suited up" for the tour of the mine Wednesday, Oct. I --, with hard hats, safety glasses, and belts holding I 'rescuers. Pictured from left to right are: Kneeling-Arlane I skall, KaV Francom, Beth Heggeness; Middle--Tauna $ -;5raw, Donna Bailey, Connie Valdez, Cordie Garcia; :ar-Genivieve Atencio, Deanna Atwood, Lucille Isaman, Patti Tour Begins p The tour began with a movie p ibout the Lisbon mine, which began production early in 1972 ind is expected to produce Mil at least 1980. 90 or so i its employees are from the fab, La Sal, and Monticello irea. Dutch then introduced our to leader, Manuel Torres, a i arveyorinthemine, and tried t0 get to the root of the "yes, I'm scared" answers in the !Mp. Part of the fear has to k the idea of being so far underneath the earth-about H !,W0 feet at Rio Algom. To ost people being under- pound seems unnatural and j unfamiliar, and therefore in-spires in-spires fear. "Air!" was the 83 !asP from one of the women 88 ''en she was asked why she gfc frightened, so Mr. Zim-& Zim-& Herman proceeded to explain & "air" is one of the most g: Uportant safety concerns and & to Rio Algom protects . Ottyone underground. : There are two shafts leading 5 n into the Lisbon mine. S W only are shafts essential access, but they also H Provide the necessary air for :& 'fathins and fnr rnt-fino Hnwn chance to inspect the board which contained namecards for everyone underground. This board is checked at the end of every shift to make sure each person is out before taking the next shift down. Down to the Mine The women then had to face "the cage" which would carry us 2,600 feet below and there was obvious hesitation in several of the groups. I figured that the cage was probably not a major cause for anxiety. It is essentially the only access into the mine, besides providing transportation of the ore by its conterpart, the "skip", and therefore is a carefully main-tained.piece main-tained.piece of equipment with high safety standards. Manuel couldn't resist a little bit of teasing as he commented, "What? Are you afraid it's going to fall to the bottom?" "Yes!" was the reply, but that lady didn't have time to back out as the cage started its descent at its man-hauling rate of 1,500 feet per minute. It was explained that the cage is supported by four cables over a mile in length since it is counterbalanced by th "kin" on the other side of Lyman. Women on the October 13 tour (not pictured) included: Evelyn Zimmerman, Penny Lawton, Ginger Torres, Sharon Key, Gaylene Hunsaker, Melanie Davis, and Denette Curtis; and the Oct. 6 tour: Brenda Merett, Kathy Spring, Darlene Somerville, Chris Robbins, Karen Tapp, Julie Sandberg, and Beverly LaFond. A Day Underground Was a New Experience As Rio Algom Wives Toured the Big Mine Bv Beth Heggeness pi "Is anyone scared?" p: "Ves!" came the chorus turn several ladies of the joiip of eleven Rio Algom : employees' wives preparing to P- air the mining facilities. In ik last month Rio Algom's Lisbon Mine has been trying to : -fcange those enthusiastic p: 'yes's by showing the em-pi em-pi ployees wives where their p; husbands work and exactly p: ibat is being done to make the j nine and its surroundings safe p; In all workers. l "Mining has a bad name because it's so isolated from ibe public," said Dutch X; Zimmerman, Safety Supervis- X; . in his opening comments, s 'ind, we're trying to change ?j 111." He went on to say, "Mining is a good job and an X; important industry-with what x" it know today there's no ss reason why a miner can't work & la twenty years or more and I ; still be in perfectly good health." the amount of dust in the mine. A blower system brings air from the surface down the main shaft, circulates it through the mine, and exhausts ex-hausts it up the shaft at the opposite end. Dutch added that every person entering the mine is provided with a simple-to-opperate self-rescuer in the event that an accidental fire produces poisonous carbon monoxide. When activated the rescuer operates for one hour which is more than sufficient to reach the main shaft from anywhere in the mine. Also, the men wear respirators with filters under dusty conditions to protect their lungs. We ladies then strapped on our rescuers, put on hard hats and safety glasses-other basic safety devices-and headed out to "go under." Let me say that the air was punctuated by a few nervous giggles! We were issued the battery-operated lights used by all, and got a the shaft-when one goes up, the other goes down. One cable is sufficient to hold the weight of 20 men, the cage, and the skip, while the other three provide the necessary safety margin. When we had all reached the bottom, our two-mile hike . around the underground facilities facili-ties began. We were shown the underground machine shops which do most normal repairs of the various "loaders," "load-ers," "buggies," and "locomotives" "loco-motives" that shovel and haul ore from the drilling "contracts" "con-tracts" to the ore chute. The wife who had worried about air probably had her fears alleviated before we had walked vbry far, because we ' weresoon holding on to our hats from the wind storm created by the ventilators! The blast was quite strong for a couple hundred of yards. The "drift" (tunnel) we were walking though was very wide, with the ceiling height ranging from 5 to 8 feet or so, therefore providing a comfortable comfort-able place to walk, as well as accommodating the machines and ore train that moves on tracks. There are few lights-the lights-the shops and eating areas of the mines being the only constantly lighted places-but since we carried our own, seeing was no problem! As we moved along, Manuel pointed out rock types, fire extinguishers, telephones to the surface, etc. The ceiling was liberally dotted with "mats"-metal strips 4-6 feet long--boIted to the rock. Manuel told us their purpose is protection from loose rocks falling from the tops of the drifts. When we entered the area of the contract we could see that much of the rock has been removed so that we were standing in a sort of room. In places where supporting rock is taken out, "cribs" (square stuctures built of wood) and "stalls" (wooden beams) are placed to prevent cave-ins. Rock pillars are also left by the miners to provide support. We watched a miner placing an explosive that they call "prell" into holes drilled in the face in preparation for blasting to loosen the rocks containing ore. Dutch explained explain-ed to us that this substance by itself is extremely difficult to ignite, and therefore quite safe to handle. Later, a booster charge and a blasting cap are placed and the entire charge is ignited by an electrical spark from a safe distance. Blasting is normally done at the end of a shift so men will not inadvertently enter the area and to allow a proper safety margin before the next shift checks the face. After stopping to watch a miner drilling in the face, we headed back to our cage and the surface with lunch and a tour of the above ground facilities to follow. I was sorry to leave-in a way, it's almost peaceful down there! After lunch Dutch and Manuel took us through the mill. Although it does not inspire the natural fear that underground operations do, the mill is a complicated factory and also operates under a strict safety program. We still had our hard hats and safety glasses to wear. The Above-Ground Facilities I have always found automated automa-ted factories to be quite fascinating, and Rio Algom's mill was no exception. From various sized chunks of dull, grey-black rock, the U308 is extracted and refined to a product called "yellowcake." Two mills break up the rock, then the resulting powder goes through various filtration and settling processes and is dried to yield yellowcake. A ton of ore will yield about 4 pounds of yellowcake, which is stored in 800 lb. barrels. Perhaps only 10 lbs. will ultimately be usable as fuel, but those ten lbs. are capable of producing an enormous amount of energy. The women next saw the laboratory which employs personnel per-sonnel for quality control of the milling product and for environmental control of the Rio Algom operation. Dutch commented that the Lisbon mine had high standards i - . . - -. ' ' I ' - . ; I " - - ' ' - ' ....... - N ; V I '-" v.x i.,r 1 .V; - . . v i . ) y - I - .. ; - 1 , '. '' " s.- ' ,mmonia nitrate-diesel fuel mixture, in preparation to blast. N - O -- ... V s k ' : - - o -'v ) i - ... - .. I I,.- ? i ;f . I i f As Lucille Isaman inspects a "crib," the wooden support structures placed by miners at Rio Algom after an ore body is removed. which had always been ahead of legislation controlling the procedures. The milling uses a lot of water that eventually is released and it meets state, of Utah requirements for drinking drink-ing water. After showing us the above ground maintenance shop which services any mine machinery, our last stop was the Rio Algom First Aid station. The station is completely com-pletely equipped to remove any injured employee from the mine and transport him to the hospital with speed and without inflicting further injury. in-jury. There are presently two employees who are certified EMT's with three more currently taking training. Rio Algom also has a complete health care insurance program for employees and their families. Tour a Success The women all seemed more relaxed when their "day at the mine" was over. Although there was more than one sigh of relief upon coming back to J the surface, I was glad to hear the wives say that they had enjoyed the tour and that "it answered a lot of my questions." ques-tions." The general consensus was, "I'm glad I went." In closing, Dutch Zimmerman Zimmer-man commented, "Every day there are so many deaths on Utah's highways that no one ever hears about, but if you ask anyone about a mine, they think we're killing people down here. If we have an accident, it's headline news." He went on to say that if the employees follow the guidelines guide-lines of Rio Algom's safety program and think about what they're doing, they can expect to be with their job for many years. As a Rio Algom wife myself, my parting comment is, "Thank you for the opportunity opportun-ity to see everything and I think I'll worry more about the thirty mile drive from town more than I'll ever worry about my husband being in the mine!" . ' - ' v., . .. . .... '-' : -" .' ...."" 'i 0 --"'A- V - '-,, v. - .-Tr" r . J- ' , t . t i-j "- J . r-"'"! -K . . I: The ladies relax over lunch provided by Rio Algom after their two-mile underground hike. They don't look scared now! |